


Three Legs Under a River

by The_Degu



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Multi chapter short story, Post-Apocalypse, Short Story, fun for the whole family, si-fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 08:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13877502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Degu/pseuds/The_Degu
Summary: After many years shut down, a bot finds themselves in a world they do not recognize. will they find their way or will they just end up in another pile of scrap by the side of the road?





	Three Legs Under a River

**Power** : on

 **Date** : unknown

 **Time** : unknown

Memory banks: 27% functional, 63% corrupt, 10% encoded-see handler

Storage cavity: empty

 **Battery** : charging… 15%

 **Communications** …

    **Radio** : offline

    **Telecommunications** : offline.

    **Wireless** **communications** : offline.

    **Voice** **box** : damaged… go to service center.

 **Body** **check** …

    **FR** : online, functional.

    **FL** : offline, nonfunctional… go to service center.

 **BR** : online, functional.

    **BL** : online, functional.

    **Tail** : online, functional.

    **Solar** **unit** : offline, functional.

 **Sensory** **units** …

    **Hearing** : online.

    **Sight** : online.

    **Touch** : online.

    **Smell** : online.

…

My optic censers flicker on lighting up the world around me gathering any information they can glean.  All I can see at first is general shapes and shadows moving about me. Optic units are unable to discern anything in the brown environment around my body. As I lift my head component to try and look at my soundings, a giant thing comes towards my optic censers and brushes away the dirt, and that was blocking it.

I look over to the thing that wiped away the dirt on my sensors. It is a human male judging from the red-brown facial hair, and long hair protruding from under the dirty hood he wares.  The human smiles at me, showing his decayed teeth, and deep sunbaked wrinkles that deeply line his face. It stirs something in my memory banks, but I cannot seem to find the folder I want.

"gad to see that yar work'in," the man says in a strange accent "yar too big fur me to curry, and I think I can patch ya up back at da shop."

I would ask him if this would be a functioning service center but seeing as one of the components that I need to be repaired is my voice box I cannot make much noise. So all I can get out is a whine and a clicking sound as The electronics in my head component snap and refuse to make contact with each other. I do wish to communicate with the human, but I am not trained in any other way of communication. So, the only thing I can seem to do is just look at the man

"now don't stress yarself" the human says calmly "ya just need to come with me and I’ll have ya right as rain. Now can ya try to stand friend?"

The man places his hand on my back helping me to get my feet under my chassis. My first attempt fails as I try to stand on my missing appendage and end up collapsing onto my side. I take the new information and catalog it before attempting a second time, this time I succeed in standing on my, now three, legs. I look over my body as best as I can. Now finding it, mostly, in working shape through my exterior is badly dented and damaged. An old car battery is attached to one of my external ports, though it looks like the cable that is connected is not a sanctioned one.

I would have corrected the human though I am stopped again with the only sound being a fast and low sounding beep. When I look up to the man again, he gives a smile and a thumbs up. He places his dirty hand in his mouth making a loud whistle that echoes through the area. At this moment I also take a look around.

I can tell it is dark out through my optical sensors can more than makeup for the lack of natural light. I see the Long-dead grass that fills the area, Along with massive scraps of mettle, and what looks to be large boulders protruding from the knee-high grass. The ground is even and flat with little changes in the landscape. In the distance, there is what looks like trees or maybe short building though it is hard to tell from this distance. It is just a dark smudge on the horizon.

It is deathly quiet around me the only sound being the wind flowing through the grass. I perk my ears as I hear movement in the tall grass. I rotate them to pinpoint the movement as it approaches and turn to look, being careful not to fall or trip.

A small droid rolls out of the grass. The droid is a nearly perfect sphere though it is slightly stretched and is no larger than six inches in diameter. It has a single optical unit in the center of the sphere with which looks up at me.

 **Accessing** **robotic** **database** : M.O.S.E. (multipurpose-online-sensing-engine). Duty: recon, and data collection. First made in the year 2[corrupt] by the company [corrupt] [corrupt] Inc. For US army and civilian use.

 The small bot turns to the man, and the man just sighs and asks, "now where's yar bro'er?"

As if on cue another small M.O.S.E. rolls out of the grass, it looks just the same as the other but is a bit more dented and has a wire dangling out of one of its back plates. The man walks over to the one that has the loose wire and sighs while picking it up.  He gently holds the small droid in his hands and pushes the wire back into the body of it while gently scolding "ya real'y need to be more careful Jerry, I don't want you getting an'thin snagged on this again."

The man turns to me with the M.O.S.E. bot he calls Jerry in hand and makes introductions "little troublemaker is Jerry, and the one on the ground is Minnie. Minnie, Jerry this is our new friend. I don't know if they have a name or not, but we'll find that when we get home. N' I expect you two to be nice to our new friend and to show them em’ ropes okay?"

The two small bots turn to look at the man and rev some internal components making a small hum from their bodies. The man smiles and places Jerry back on the ground. When he stands again, he hits his forehead with his hand and groans slightly before saying "and I forgot to introduce m'self! I'm Allen Benjamin Cotton, but my friends call me Ben, and yar my friend now, so you can call me that!"

Ben threw his head back and lets out a great laugh before sighing and saying "we should head'in back. Sun’s coming up soon, and I don't particularly feel like burning to a Crip!"

Ben starts walking in the direction of the dark spot on the horizon the two small bots following closely behind him. I stand there for a moment something in my systems saying I need to stay. I try to dig at a memory but find only corrupted files and long strings of unrecognizable code. After a moment of deliberation, I see that fallowing the human would most likely lead to repairs if he is telling the truth.

It is slow going; I struggle to keep up with the other three. Each time they go over an obstacle I need to stop and assess the situation and attempt to figure out how to get over it without my foreleg. Most of the time I am able to predict how to get over any piece of debris or crack in the path, but other times I end up tumbling to the ground. Each time this happens ben stops and waits for me to get my feet under my body again, patiently waiting for me to right myself, or to get my one of my leg units out of a hole.

We do not make it to the dark spot in the distance, though it is closer, we instead make it to a long stretch of road.  The asphalt is long decayed, and the once grid-packed cars are now just rusted shells. A few of them were moved so that they lay in a circle around a toppled semi-truck.

Ben walks over to an opening in the cars where a chain of wire and cans obstruct the path. He gently moves the chain out of the way causing a clattering sound but moves without fear. The two small bots role into the small courtyard; whirring and beeping at each other, before going rolling into the large trailer through a small hole in the side.

The small area between the cars and the trailer has three large blue barrels and a large box that is covered in plastic. Ben walks past these things and to the door of the trailer. He knocks three times then speaks in a loud voice. "Merlin we're home! And I have someone I'd like you to meet!"

There is movement inside the trailer then the door pops open. Ben pushes his way in, keeping the door open for me.

Ben hums and looks around the trailer for a moment. He walks to one of the walls and feels around for a switch. A few LEDs blink to life brightening up the small space considerably. The inside is cramped, filled with scrap metal and computer parts, it smells of rust and decay, but also of someone living in the space.

There are long metal strips along the walls like thing shelving. They run along the shelves and other storage but hold nothing themselves. Except for Minnie and Jerry rolling along them seeming to chase each other while doing so.

The back wall is made of fabric attached to a pole, dividing the trailer into two spaces. Above my head is a large crudely-made trapdoor that sits open, letting in the moonlight.

"did we happ'in ta get any business while we was away Merlin?" Ben asks while climbing up to reach the open trapdoor.

"no" a harsh robotic voice comes from somewhere I cannot see. "though I believe traders will be coming tomorrow."

"great!" Ben says and closes the door above his head slamming it shut with a clang that reverberates through the trailer.

 "Merlin come and introduce yarself" ben teases "ya don't want to be rude now do ya?"

There is a whirring sound as an object comes out from behind the fabric. It is a medium sized bot, still smaller than me but much larger than the M.O.S.E.s. It looks in good condition as it lands on its two feet, making a small clicking sound as the mettle feet the floor. Its body is shaped like an elongated egg with a set of propellers on either side of its body and a set of legs underneath. Half of its body module is a large multi-jointed camera which swivels around to look at me.

 **Accessing** **robotic** **database** : O.W.L (online wandering locater), duty: recon and small item transport. First made in the year [corrupt] by the company [corrupt] Inc. For US army use.

I look at Merlin for a moment, each of us collecting data on the other. Merlin takes a step forward to inspect me more and I go to do the same as well, but I end up tripping and almost falling onto the other bot.

"guess I should take care of that then," Ben states more then asks. He moves a few things around and pushes the curtain aside so that I can see into the back for a moment as he grabs a few things. When he comes back the storage area he is carrying a small foldable table and a box with a handle. He sets the table up next to one of the computers and lays out his tools. It takes a few tries for me to get up on the table so that he can work, but when I do Ben gives a wide smile.

"alright," he says and claps his hands together "mind if I run some diagnoses while I work on your hardware, to help me know what's going on?"

I would tell him that, that sounds fine but I cannot, so instead I just open the plate on my chest offering the ports there. Ben smiles and looks at the different ports before standing and digging through a box of wires and connectors. It takes a minute, but he is eventually able to find one that works for hooking up to another wire that then connects to his computer.

I feel the data being passed back and forth from the computer as ben gently inspects my foreleg. For the next few hours, ben cleans and repairs me to the best of his ability. Luckily the man knows what he is doing, unluckily he does not have the parts to repair me fully. The leg he attaches is not made for a unit like me but works nonetheless. Though he is unable to do anything for my voice box beyond a surface cleaning and rewiring so that I do not make it worse when I do use the limited amount of sounds I can manage to make.

"I see yar missin' some data as well," Ben says with a sigh as he looks over to the computer screen "not that good with software m'self but maybe we can extract something or patch anything obvious. If that's alright with ya."

 Ben looks to me with his toothy smile. Then presses his lips he pulls up a different file on his computer and clicks a few things before asking again "you okay with me diggin' in yar data?"

I feel what would be me triggering my voice box instead go through my port and into the computer.

_If that is what you wish_

My thoughts write themselves on the screen. Ben lets out a cheer and pats me on my head unit and says "glad to see ya can talk! Now let me ask ya this, do ya have a name in there?"

I take a moment to search my files before returning

_I do not know, though I do believe that I might have something in one of those corrupted files. I also have some that are incepted, that I cannot access as well._

"Alright looks like we have ourselves a challenge!" Ben says and starts going through my numerous files. It is a strange feeling as he forces his way through my corrupt data like I am not controlling my own memories. Though I can boot him out of any I do not want him in any files, though I have no reason to do so.

"ere's something" he nearly shouts, "I think I found some encoded video logs. Just give me a sec to decrypt them… and pull them up on my computer… and 'ere we go!"

 **Start** : video log 001

"this is your new unit" a commanding voice sounds from a man in uniform. He looks down to the dog-like robot below him, then to the woman standing in front of him.  "take good care of it, and it will take good care of you"

The robot looks up to the woman and gives its tail a slight wag before saying in a neutral voice "hello I am Retriever unit 3.87."

The woman kneels and runs her hand over the Retriever's head. She hums and says "hi there, my name is Abby, it is nice to meet you Retriever. I can't wait to get to know you!”

Abby leads the robot out of the factory room and onto a paved path. The unit takes everything in as they walk and listen intently as Abby talks to herself. “so we have training in the morning, but we can get to know each other for the rest of the day… well, it is more like you get to know me, isn’t it… we need to change your calling card though, all of your siblings have the same name as you, so we should probably change that. it should probably still start with an R so that I don’t need to change as much paperwork.”

Abby’s thought trails off for a moment before she looks are her retriever unit with a smile. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while if that isn’t obvious.  How does River sound to you?”

"you are my commander, so you may call me what you like," Retriever says in their flat, robotic, tone.

"I'm not your commander, we’re partners."

"I do not understand. I was made just for you and your needs. How are you not my commanding officer?”

"were in this together,” Abby starts struggling to find the right words “like you said you were made for me, but I think that means we are meant to work together”

 **End** : video log 001

The memory fades, and I blink back to the here and now. I look over to ben who is still looking at the screen, he rubs his eyes then looks over to me. He runs his hand over my head in a soothing manner and asks, "is it alright if I call ya river as well?"

 _I do not see why not_. I tell him. _If you wish to do so._

"Alright, River. Welcome to the family!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, thanks for checking out my original story it means a lot to me, and I hope you enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> If you really enjoyed my work maybe you can buy me a tea? http://ko-fi.com/D1D3894A  
> If not that's okay! you could also check out my Tumblr if you're interested thedegu.tumbr.com


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